First things first. When the BluRay for Rihanna‘s “Loud Tour Live at the 02” was released, I noticed on Amazon.com there were a lot of bad customer reviews and the complaints were regarding the sound quality. I’m not techie, and I rarely notice things like that so I went ahead and bought it. Once she got to her second song it was clear where the complaints were coming from. The audio was terribly flat, and I ended up having to turn my volume all the way up to 75 and even than there was no Pop to the sound. Everything just felt muddled together, the audience reactions her voice the band and everything was all on the same level. I would be upset, but I really don’t think this is going to be one of those concert DVD/BluRay’s I’ll watch very often.

Now we all know that I’m a big Rihanna fan and definitely support the Navy, so most of everything I’m going to say about this show comes out of love. And overall, I think as far as putting together an entertaining and engaging show Rihanna and company did a great job. The staging was excellent, the different set ups and set designs and the choreography was all done really well. “S&M” was done to a T, as was the last minute addition of “We Found Love” and several other great moments of the show. The band themselves did an awesome job of putting subtle changes to some of her hits. Namely I loved what they did with my favorite Rihanna song “What’s My Name” as well as “Don’t Stop The Music”. And the pacing of the show was great, the setlist left very few dull moments (and those moments I definitely fast forwarded through, sorry), and few great surprises (I was really surprised that she included “Breakin Dishes”).

The problem: Rihanna’s voice. We know she’s never been a powerhouse singer, but over the years she has come leaps and bounds from where she started out. Just compare this with her first Live DVD/BluRay and you’ll see the progress she’s made not only vocally but overall as a stage performer. However she’s still no Whitney or Beyonce, and she has some obvious limitations vocally. The one thing that annoyed me the most was her singing maybe 3/4 of every bar of her song. Towards the end of each little set it seemed like she sang less and less. This is fine when you are actually at the show, because for the most part as an audience member you’ll be singing along and dancing and talking and not paying that close attention to the vocals. On BluRay however, it just gets slightly pointless to watch. And, sorry RiRi I have to go there, there were two bits where she came out and tackled some of her ballads. I had to laugh when she was doing her extra runs at the end of “Hate That I Love You” because… why bother!? Nobody expects amazing vocals from her, so I don’t even know why she tried because it was slightly embarrassing. She didn’t sound terrible, it was just like… “save the vocal demonstrations for artists that have actually strong vocals!”

The great thing about Rihanna though that makes the BluRay very watchable is the fact that she clearly is enjoying herself on stage. So many shows you watch where the artist is just going through the motions, being more calculated than fun, wishing the show was over already. You don’t get that with Rihanna who smiles and gets on with her audience and is just a young girl doing what a lot of young girls wish they could do every night. If you can get over the audio shortcomings and her vocal limitations, it’s a really Fun, Entertaining show. If you are a real fan and Navy supporter I would recommend it. If you aren’t… walk on by.

It’s about to happen yet again. I detest Bruno Mars‘ new hit single “Locked Outta Heaven”, yet because Top 40 Radio is forcing it down our throats I’m starting to get the pure Police-rip off stuck in my head. Before I know it, I’ll be enjoying it. And this, my friends, is the problem with the Radio. Let’s discuss!

For almost 3 months now, I’ve had a mix CD stuck in my car stereo. As with anyone I’m sure, about a month later I got sick of hearing the same 15 songs over and over so I (*gasp) switched over to listening to the Radio. And … Oh! The Horror!

Maroon 5’s “One More Night” from “Overexposed” is way Overplayed.

There are some good things that can come from radio, but overall it’s a frustrating entity. The joke with mainstream radio has always been that they tend to play the same 10 or so songs over and over (and over and over… and over and over). In the past three months it’s been Maroon 5 “One More Night”, Chris Brown “Don’t Wake Me Up”, P!nk‘s “Blow Me (One Last Kiss)” and Rihanna‘s “Diamonds” (Recently it’s been lots of Ne-Yo “Let Me Love You (Until You Learn To Love Yourself), Ke$ha “Die Young”, and Lumineers “Hey Ho”). Songs that I liked initially, but the overplay of them on the radio leaves a bit of a sour taste in my mouth now whenever I hear them.

There are those songs, like Bruno’s, that I don’t like hardly at all in the beginning. After hearing them like 50 times in a day, you start to get familiar with them and actually sing a long and than you have it stuck in your head when you’re not listening. Taylor Swift‘s “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” is one, also The Wanted‘s one verse offering “Glad You Came” and a few others got embedded in my brain and I just couldn’t resist but to surrender myself to their Popp-y goodness.

I can’t say that radio back in the 90’s was much different. I remember hearing the same stuff all the time, and back in the day I would make little radio mix tapes (I think we all did) and it was always like “Okay, I heard TLC ‘Creep’ like a half hour ago so I KNOW they are gonna play it again and I’ll tape it than” and most of the time we were right. However in the 90’s I think it was slightly different, I actually believe that requests from listeners affected the radio.

Like K-Ci and JoJo‘s hit “All My Life” was a song that one radio station played and got immense requests for after the fact, and than the song blew up on a national level. I don’t get the sense that the listeners are actually making these current hits, but a bit of … well I don’t want to say Payola, but it seems the radio has picked it’s favorites and refuse to play anything other than those select artists.

Good things about radio? Well, the Modern Rock stations and the Classic Rock stations are good at not replaying the same stuff out. And those are the stations that I most often Shazam with because they play new stuff (well the Modern Rock ones), or stuff that I’ve never heard of. And you also have to love some Urban stations or even the Mainstream Pop stations when they flash you back and play something you haven’t heard in ages. It happens rarely, but when it does it’s always a nice surprise.

Bottom Line: I HAVE TO FIX MY CAR STEREO! At this point I’m completely over the radio and have ghetto-rigged it so that I just listen to my iPhone even though it’s not connected to my car speakers. I just have reached my fill and I honestly think that Radio overall should try to come up with some ideas to make it pop. I have to think though that with Pandora and Spotify and so many other online Music sites becoming so popular (and invading cars faster and faster) that Radio is in a shaky situation. They are probably less prone to take the kind of risk that made “All My Life” a hit so many years ago, so they just play what they think people want to hear. And after a while, even if they didn’t want to hear it in the first place the listeners will get used to and possibly like the tripe that is being overexposed on radio.

I am so over Award Shows, Grammys included although it’s slightly the exception. The music scene is a lot more concerned these days with the big selling artists as opposed to the more talented ones, and most of the Award shows reflect that. The problem is that most of the big selling artists aren’t really all that talented, as most of them cater to the Young audiences that use iTunes and are more of a presence sales wise than any other group.

That being said, in the past few years there have been big selling Pop artists that actually do have some artistry to them. So Lady GaGa, Katy Perry and even Bruno Mars being nominated didn’t bother me all that much. However a big nomination for, say, The Wanted or Nicki Minaj this year would just invalidate the whole thing. The good thing is that I don’t think most of the voters are going to go that route, which might totally shake things up. There could be some very surprising picks, and because of that I’m sort of at a loss as to where I want to go with these predictions. I’m gonna take a shot at it though, and we’ll see how close I get (will my record be maintained?)

Some of the artists I think will be favorites are as follows. Mumford and Sons delivered an awesome performance two years ago, last year they scored 4 major nominations (most likely because of that performance), and this year they are likely to win since they eligible for a whole new album “Babel”. That album had pretty impressive first week sales in the US, the group is more “vintage-styled” artists, and they are very popular right now with their hit single “I Will Wait” I think they have a shot at leading the nominations this year. I could see them up for Album of the Year, Record and Song of the Year, and in multiple Rock categories.

The other favorite will most likely be Frank Ocean. No he didn’t produce any record breaking singles, and his album “Channel Orange” didn’t smash the charts. However there was tremendous buzz about Ocean before the release of his album, most of which came from his outing himself online. The reviews for his album were stellar, and his handful of performances on Saturday Night Live, Jimmy Fallon and the MTV Awards got great reviews. Album of the Year seems likely, and New Artist is one he looks like a favorite to win.

The Black Keys are also probably going to benefit Grammy style from a breakthrough year. Their album “El Camino” was a critical smash, and their single “Lonely Boy” and it’s accompanying video were highly buzzed about and did quite well on the radio. The Keys had a big year and now that they are less underground Grammy voters won’t have a problem

Maroon 5 is a Grammy favorite over the years, having won 3 already. This year, with front man gaining more mainstream visibility thanks to “The Voice”, the group scored two of the biggest hit singles of their careers which should mean Grammy gold. “Payphone” and “One More Night” each have equally good chances to be up for Song and Record of the Year, and they should also see themselves in a variety of the Pop categories as well.

P!nk got her first #1 this year, and she’s the biggest Pop Female Entertainer to hit this year so that lane is pretty much all hers. She’s been nominated several times in the past with only one win, so this might her year for Grammy redemption.

Also, Fun. There are certain artists that made a big impression with one single early in the year (like Gotye and Carly Rae Jaspen) but failed to make any impact with follow ups. Fun. had a huge hit with “We Are Young” featuring Janelle Monae which is really likely to score nods for Song and Record of the Year, but they have a popular follow up in “Some Nights” which is still doing well so they might score multiple nods.

Album of the Year
Frank Ocean “Channel Orange”
Fun. “Some Nights”
Mumford and Sons “Babel”
P!nk “The Truth About Love”
and the fifth slot for either Paul McCartney “Kisses on the Bottom” or Bruce Springsteen “Wrecking Ball” – Two legends that have had releases in this Grammy year.

Song of the Year/ Record of the Year
Carly Rae Jaspen “Call Me Maybe” – Maybe! The song of the summer might be considered a little too Popp-y but it’s better than some (a lot) of other songs nominated in this category in the past.
Coldplay “Paradise”
Fun. “We Are Young”
Gotye “Somebody That I Used To Know” – One of the few hit singles that are actually creative, artistic and original. Though it was a hit early in the year I can’t see this being ignored.Rihanna “We Found Love” – Monster single which certainly won’t be ignored. And something tells me it has a really good shot of winning.

New ArtistBest Coast – This duo has been greatly buzzed about all year, don’t see how Grammy voters could miss them.
Frank Ocean – and he’ll probably win
Fun.Hot Chelle RaeLana Del Rey – I don’t much about her other than she apparently turned in a horrible “SNL” performance, but she’s popular so she will definitely get in here.

And some other names you’ll probably see here and there: Miguel, Train, Neon Trees, Kelly Clarkson, Chris Brown, The Killers. And that’s it. I’m done, we’ll see how I did.

Edit: “We Found Love” and “Somebody That You Used To Know” might not be eligible after all. I’m going to class now so I don’t really have the time to re-edit that part so just pick any two of my “Other Possibilities” for Record and Song of the Year. Thanks.